With Printed Mint product templates, creating beautiful products with your preferred design software is simple and easy. In this article we’ll go over:
- Downloading product templates
- Product templates overview Important Design File Requirements
- Using product templates with your design software
- Product specific tutorials
Downloading Product Templates
On each product page in the shop, you can download the product’s template and mockup. You can also get a quick glance at the Design File Requirements.
Alternatively, you can view and download all of our product templates and mockups HERE.
Product Templates Overview
A Printed Mint product template consists of a few different parts:
- Artwork size
- Design file notes
- Full bleed design area
- Product area
- Safe area for text
Artwork size
The Artwork Size is exactly how big your design file should be in pixels. Always double check the size of your design files before uploading! If your file is too big or too small, it’ll automatically be stretched to fit the Full Bleed Design Area, which could result in a blurry or pixelated print.
Design file notes
Occasionally, we’ll put important notes about design file requirements under the Artwork Size. Always read and follow these notes carefully. If you don’t understand the note or you have a question, don’t hesitate to contact support@printedmint.com.
Full bleed design area
The Full Bleed Design Area is the area where your design file will go, the Artwork Size tells you the size of this area in pixels.
“Full-bleed” means that design elements that extend all the way to the edge of a product, such as background colors or patterns, actually need to extend past the edge of the product. This is because in the printing industry there is often a small margin of error when it comes to alignment. If your background color or pattern is exactly the same size as the product, these small errors could result in your product having a thin white edge. This is demonstrated in the image below:
As long as your background colors, patterns, etc. extend all the way to the
Full Bleed Design Area , you won’t have this problem!
Product area
The Product Area gives you an idea of how your design will be placed on the product. We’ve very carefully measured all of our products to ensure that the Product Area is as accurate as possible so that you can be confident about the placement of your designs. However, some products do vary. For example, fabric products aren’t all cut and sewn exactly the same. Keep this in mind when designing!
Safe area for text
The Safe Area for Text is the area in which it’s safe to put text, monograms, motifs, logos, etc.
Placing text, monograms, motifs or logos outside of this area puts them at risk of touching the edge of the product or being cut off. Remember, design elements that are supposed to extend all the way to the edge of a product (such as background colors or patterns) should extend all the way to the blue Full Bleed Design Area line.
Important Design File Requirements
Printed Mint product templates are simple and easy to use, but there are some very important file requirements that are easy to overlook.
| JPEG |
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Most of our products require a JPEG file. This file type is generally smaller than a PNG, meaning it takes up less space on your computer and it uploads more quickly. JPEGs also support compression. You’ll notice that on some of our larger products such as blankets, we recommend a compression level of 75%. This will make the file significantly smaller without visibly affecting the print quality. |
| PNG |
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PNG files are generally larger than JPEG files, but have a very important feature: transparency. On all of our colored products (colored tees, natural totes, etc.) we use a 5-color printing process. This means that unlike regular 4-color printers, we can actually print white ink! Therefore, a JPEG (which always has a white background) can’t be used. PNGs don’t automatically have a transparent background. Make sure to select the “transparent” option in your design software when saving a PNG! |
| sRGB vs. CMYK |
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sRGB is an acronym for Standard Red Green Blue, and is how your computer monitor displays color. CMYK is an acronym for Cyan Magenta Yellow Key (Black), and is how printers print color. When creating artwork in software such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, you have the option to work in either RGB or CMYK. With our particular printing process, it’s industry best practice to use the RGB color mode for glass, plastics, ceramics and metals. |
| PPI |
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PPI is an acronym for Pixels Per Inch. Simply put, if you create a 1×1 inch file at 300 PPI, it will be 300×300 pixels. So why is this important? Well, on large products such as blankets it’s unnecessary to print at a high resolution like 300 PPI since there’s no visible difference in quality. Therefore, we often recommend a lower resolution like 150 PPI, which will save space on your computer and make uploading much, much faster! The easiest way to find out if your design file has the correct PPI is simply to make sure that it’s the correct size in pixels. If the Artwork Size says your file should be 1000×1000 pixels and your file is 2000×2000, you may have saved it with the wrong PPI. |
Using Product Templates with Your Design Software
We’ve made our Product Templates .PDF files since they can be opened in a variety of popular design programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. For detailed instructions on how to use our product templates with your favorite software, please visit the following articles:
Product Specific Tutorials
Printed Mint product templates make it easy to master new products in a heartbeat. But, every product is unique and some are easier to work with than others. For these products, please visit the following articles:
Your Printed Mint product listings look amazing, your packaging looks amazing, your design files look amazing – it’s time to place your first order!
